Are You Ready to Witness India’s First Harvard? Know The Govt Plans

The HRD ministry has evoked the proposal to build 20 top-class educational institutions which will be termed as the institution of eminence to the Union Cabinet for approval.

The strategy is aimed at creating the world-class educational institutions packed with technology and quality. In other terms, India’s first own Harvard or Stanford.

The Human Resource and Development Ministry has also included a clause to free them from the restrictive regulatory regime of the UGC (University Grants Commission).

That means the institutes will be completely autonomous and free from any government control.

These institutions will have complete academic, administrative and financial autonomy and the regulations of these universities will be free from restrictive inspection regime of UGC. The control over the fee and curriculum will be in the hands of the institutions.

Currently, the University Grants Commission of India (UGC India) is a statutory body set up by the Indian Union government in accordance with the UGC Act 1956 under Ministry of Human Resource Development and is charged with coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher education.

It provides recognition to universities in India and disburses funds to such recognised universities and colleges. V.S. Chauhan is the incumbent chairman.

Its headquarters is in New Delhi, and six regional centres in Pune, Bhopal, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Bangalore.

The institutes to be declared as the Institution of Eminence will have to achieve inclusion in the top 500 global rankings within 10 years. The next target will be to achieve the top 100 positions.

The institutes will have an excellent teacher-student ratio of 1:20 at the initial stages and then will be improved to 1:10 in the upcoming 5 years.

While the ration of Indian and Foreign students will be 70:30, the institutes will have faculties from all over the globe. Those with a degree from one of the top 500 colleges will be considered and appointed as eligible foreign faculty.

The students will be selected through a merit-based transparent procedure. The decision about fee structure will be at the discretion of the institute but it will have to declare it in a transparent manner.

Accompanied by a world-class library with the subscription to reputed journals, the private institutions will not get government funding. But they will be eligible to utilise government funds for specific studies and projects.

The course-curriculum will be prepared by the institutions themselves and they will also have full autonomy in hiring its faculty. Some industry professionals could also be appointed as faculty. The salary will be decided by the institutes themselves.

Ten government and ten privates institutions will be conferred this status. The Government universities will be receiving a government aid of Rs 10000 Crore.

The Government institutions will have to apply to the HRD Ministry for the special status whereas private organisation will have to be backed by any sponsoring organisation with a net worth of Rs 5,000 Crore.

The selections will be made by an empowered committee comprising of three to five eminent personal for three years by the cabinet committee headed by Prime Minister.

The committee will recommend the names to UGC which will then forward it to HRD Ministry.